We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kelsey Kleiner. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kelsey below.

Kelsey, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your business sooner or later

Yes and No. I love the quote “What Is For You, Shall Not Pass You” and I remind myself of it often. So I do think that when my business started to take off and I made the decision to quit the job that I had at the time and give it everything it was the right time for me to try. I was temporarily living at home as my boyfriend at the time (now husband) and I were looking for a house and I no longer had rent to pay so it seemed as good of a time as any to go for it.

But it isn’t easy. Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart some days and as someone who is very empathetic naturally it can be hard to be the “boss” and make hard decisions like fire a client for example. However, I like to think of those moments as “stepping into the CEO role” because no-one else can do it for me. I don’t have to be that person all the time, but some days I need to.

I don’t know if diving full time into my business earlier would have made a difference, I had been out of college for a couple of years and while my traditional job that I had gotten after graduation had given me lots of experience the 3 years I was there, my business has taught me so much and I’ve become way more confident in my skills and work because of it.

I have been doing freelance work off and on since I was in college so I was I think slowly getting there. I also watched my mom run her own business growing up, so I’ve always had inspiration like that in my life. Even during college I had a couple of close friends in my graphic design classes who were constantly freelancing and one was like “Kelsey, you should give this a shot” but I was a lot less confident in my skills then compared to now. I think running my business and doing work for a variety of clients and people all over the world has given me the confidence that I might not have had if I hadn’t eventually started my business.

Now I’m at the point where I don’t know if I could ever go back to a traditional role; it would have to be a dream job in order to pull me away from the business and work that I love deeply.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a third generation artist and founder/owner of OneTen The Studio® LLC, a creative studio and digital type foundry located in the heart of the PA Wilds, in Pennsylvania (USA).

OneTen The Studio® is driven by my love for letterforms. I’ve recently pivoted the studio from focusing primarily on branding, to focusing on type design; retail typefaces, custom type for clients, logotype consulting, and modifications of our font library typefaces for clients. I do still plan on taking on occasional branding projects as it is something that brings me joy.

I originally went to college (Mercyhurst University in Erie, PA) for fashion merchandising. My love of fashion is intricately intertwined with my desire to be creative and one of the reasons I had picked Mercyhurst was for the fashion program and the opportunity to study at FIT (Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC) my senior year.

I wanted to work for a fashion magazine and I was doing research about fashion careers and ended up thinking that perhaps graphic design would be a good minor to have since I wanted to work in a magazine. So I met with the head of the department who told me that she had studied Fashion and Graphic Design as well in college, and I decided to enroll in graphic design classes for a minor.

In one of my first few graphic design classes I had what I lovingly call my ‘movie moment’. I was sitting in the back of the design lab in front of my computer and I was working on some sketches or taking notes I can’t remember, however I do remember thinking to myself “wow, I could do this for the rest of my life” and that is when I realized that graphic design was what I wanted to do.

Within days I had switched my major to graphic design and fashion as my minor and the rest is history. Now looking back I can see how graphic design is truly what I was meant to do, and I love my job so much.

I have a couple of key moments from the past couple of years that I am very proud of in regards to my work; in 2024 my husband and I traveled to NYC as my work (done under the creative direction of another studio) was on a billboard in Times Square. I hadn’t been to NYC before, so getting to experience the city for the first time with my husband in addition to seeing my work on a billboard in this way was a surreal moment and something I could have only dreamed about happening. I still get emotional thinking about it.

Additionally, in late 2024-2025 I was one of 3 artists chosen for the pilot round of the PA Wilds Collaborative Series in which I was paired with a local manufacturer to create a series of products for the PA Wilds to sell in their stores. This was especially impactful as one of the other artists picked was my mom! She and I got to experience the program together and I’m proud of that. The work I did for that project was especially important to me as it was the first time I had the chance to be paid to work on a typeface for a project. I did a typeface revival as part of the project and the typeface (called OT Wilds) is being adapted by the PA Wilds as part of their branding and I’m currently working on expanding the OT Wilds family with a roman version.

Have you ever had to pivot?

If I think about it, starting my business was a sort of pivot. After I graduated from college in 2017, I had a couple of graphic design jobs and did freelance work off and on while I was in school and also after I graduated. I never really saw myself doing freelance work or running a business, even though I watched my mom run her own business growing up. I had a couple of close friends in school who said I should give it a try but I thought the 9-5 and working for someone else was what I wanted.

In 2019 and into early 2020 I was looking for a new job, and I had no success. I was looking for a remote graphic design job because as someone who had been working for a few years at that point I realized that I wanted more. I wanted more flexibility, more money, and most importantly more freedom within my job.

But I never got any interviews.

I became frustrated and began thinking about freelancing. I realized more and more that, that was what I wanted to in combination with a remote job. I finally got a remote graphic design job in September of 2020 and left my other position. In December of 2020 I created my instagram account and started posting my work. In January 2021 I booked my first couple of clients, February I booked more and by the middle of February I decided that I was going to take a big chance on myself and leap into running a business full time. So I quit that remote job and have been running my design studio ever since.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I could honestly talk all day about this!

Books:

Extra Bold – A feminist inclusive anti-racist non-binary field guide for graphic designers by Ellen Lupton + More

The Freelancer’s Bible – Sara Horowitz

Baseline Shift: Untold stories of Women in Graphic Design History – Princeton Architectural Press

Citizen Designer – Steven Heller + Veronique Vienne

The Brand Gap – Marty Neumeier

The Brand Flip – Marty Neumeier

Scramble – Marty Neumeier

POP! – Sam Horn

Youtube:

The Futur

Adobe Live

Megan Weeks

Paola Kassa

Abi Connick

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.onetenthestudio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onetenthestudio/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelsey-kleiner/
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/onetenthestudio/